Arrest in one homicide made as Brockton detectives continue work on two other slayings

Tuesday

Jan 26, 2010 at 12:01 AMJan 26, 2010 at 7:57 PM

The arrest of Michael Barros, 24, of Lawrence Street, Brockton, in the Jan. 17 slaying of Moises Vicente, 23, of Attleboro, comes as state and local police are stepping up patrols throughout the city to try to end the escalating gun violence in the city.

Maureen Boyle

One suspect in the brazen daylight slaying of a 23-year-old man on Hancock Street is now in custody, and investigators are still trying to identify who killed two siblings in a Nilsson Street apartment last Thursday.

The arrest of Michael Barros, 24, of Lawrence Street, Brockton, in the Jan. 17 slaying of Moises Vicente, 23, of Attleboro, comes as state and local police are stepping up patrols throughout the city to try to end the escalating gun violence in the city.

“We still have a lot more work to do but this is a good step,” Mayor Linda Balzotti said of the arrest.

Barros was arrested Sunday night on a warrant charging murder and possession of a firearm without a license in connection with a Jan. 17 slaying on Hancock Street, said Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton.

Barros is accused of fatally shooting Vicente from a minivan as the victim walked down Hancock Street around 3 p.m. Barros pleaded innocent in Brockton District Court Monday and was ordered held without bail. He is to return to court Feb. 18.

The mayor praised investigators in making the arrest but said taking one person off the street will not stop the gun violence in the city.

“I wish it was that easy,” she said. “It is a long-term approach that we will have to take. We need to address why people get involved, the motive and reason behind it all.”

The arrest in the Jan. 17 slaying came days after Maria DePina, 29, and her brother, Jorge DePina, 26, were found shot to death in a Nilsson Street apartment Thursday around 9 a.m.

Those killings — along with a spate of other gun-related incidents — prompted increased city and state patrols. In addition, narcotics detectives raided a Walnut Street house last Friday, arresting 10 people and seizing gang literature as well as drugs.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said the additional patrols are having a “positive impact” in the city and he was grateful for the extra help from the state police.

The mayor said the extra manpower on the street appears to be working. “We are all working on the same page,” she said.

In the arrest in the Hancock Street killing, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Barros and arrested him around 10:30 p.m. in the city.

The slay victim, Vicente, and a 24-year-old man, whose name and address were not released, were walking on Hancock Street about 3 p.m. Jan. 17 when a gunman riding in a van shot them and then sped off, police and witnesses said. Last August, Vicente was one of two people who had been shot and wounded outside a Centre Street restaurant.

His death was one of four homicides in the city so far this year.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the killings of a brother and sister on Nilsson Street last Thursday continued to progress although no arrest has yet been made.